Pain
by Deserttail
Summary: The Resistance is struggling in its fight against Voltaire's new nation. When Tala is falsely accused of being a traitor he gets away before he can be punished but now lives between both factions. Can he still fight without them? Songfic


**Welcome to my first thing ever posted on Fanfiction. Yay!**

**Anyway this was inspired by the song Pain by Hollywood Undead and is bascially a songfic. There maybe some yaoi later on and the rating may go up but at the moment it'll stay at T. Anything in _italics_ are lyrics. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade nor do I own the song Pain, which belongs to Hollywood Undead.**

**Warnings: In this chapter I think theres only swearing**

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><p>'<em>Now I can see your pain I'm sorry. I cried so hard.'<em>

The forest went by in a blur, the world becoming a whirl of green, brown and blue. Everything around looked the same, the same mesh of colours and no way offered an easy route to safety. The sound of running feet echoed among the trees, most were from behind though one set were in front, slightly to the right. They were trying to cut him off and if his hearing wasn't so acute it would have worked too. Timing was essential now as he kept running straight on a collision course with the person trying to stop him. If he changed direction too early they could easily adjust their path too and plan a new attack, if he was too late he would have to fight his way out and though appealing as it was it would most likely only put blood on his hands.

For the moment his full attention went to the person ahead, determining his distance and location. Easy enough so far, the cracking of sticks and dry leaves meant he could keep track of them as they ran towards each other. Closer and closer they came never faltering from the path once. He wanted to make his move just before they would see each other, that way the others behind him wouldn't be able to warn the other of his deviation until it was too late. Then he could simply outrun or outlast them whichever came first. In the swirl the blue suddenly seemed to increase but he took no notice, carefully picking the moment he would bank a hard left.

Just as he went to make his move, movement caught his eye and he cursed. The idea had been to change direction so suddenly that they would meet up and not know which direction he had gone but that quickly shattered to pieces. The person he had been heading for had seen him and now knew in which direction he would turn. What had gone wrong in his calculations? Shaking his head rapidly he turned sharply and sprinted away hoping to get distance so he could double back and confuse them. Too late, he had made his move that one second too late.

In the same amount of time he went from being in a very bad position to being in one of the worst places possible. The brown had disappeared from the colours around him except far away in the distance. The footsteps surrounded him on all sides but in front now. The sound of a raging river was now evident to his ears, spanning across the clearing that he had not meant to enter. It did not take even a heartbeat to work out what had happened. Concentrating on his hearing meant he almost completely disregarded his vision so he basically only recognised colours and movement, enough to warn him of anything in his path so he could avoid it. The sudden flash of blue had meant the trees had begun to thin so the person he'd been listening to would be able to see him further away. But almost more importantly it meant a clearing was nearby, which as far as he was concerned meant a death trap.

It was too late, he had to take the chance of getting across the clearing and losing them in those trees. '"Always too late," he muttered to himself softly. It was a habit it appeared he had fallen into; he would not let it happen again. '_The necks of this youth, with their necks through this noose_,' he thought bitterly.

Without another thought he ran as fast as he could towards the narrowest part of the river but even this part of the river was too wide to jump across. For a second he didn't move, staring blankly at the fast flowing water. Voices that carried to him from the tree line sounded triumphant. He hated water to his very core, especially large bodies of it like this river, but if he wanted even a chance of living to see the sunset he knew he had to get across it and that meant swimming. Having made the decision he didn't even hesitate to jump into the water.

A loud bang rang across the field and a piercing pain shot through his left arm just below his elbow. If he'd stayed where he'd been milliseconds before he would have been shot in the chest and most likely killed or fatally wounded, left to die alone in the wilderness. Jumping had indeed saved his life, for the moment. The coldness of the water hit him full force when he finally landed, the flow under the water was even faster than that that could be seen from the shore. It pulled him under and with one arm out of commission and shoes on his feet he had difficulty swimming against it.

All around him was darkness as he carried downstream and the spinning had disorientated him to the degree that he couldn't tell up from down. Fighting panic he tried in vain to move his left arm but the bullet had struck bone and snapped it. Using his one remaining arm he half swam, half floated in the direction he hoped would lead him to the surface. Suddenly his head was above the water and he gasped for air, for the first time feeling the agonising pain his lungs had been in.

Along this part of the river the trees grew right up against the shore line and they span past in a blur as the current continued to get faster. Exhaustion weighed him down now as much as the water and it took everything in him to keep afloat let alone swim to the shore. He could only keep fighting for a few more minutes before he would be spent and no longer be able to keep his head above the water.

A few branches leaned over the river and he struggled to reach them and he even managed to grab hold of one once but the slippery wood didn't provide enough grip and the current took him further and further away from where he started. Eventually his eyes closed in complete and utter exhaustion. Oh how he hated water so much. So much harder to fight and win against. He had so much stamina when it came to running on land but this did not transfer to the water.

The water consumed him once more and his body got pulled one way then the next. His head hit something hard suddenly and he barely registered the pain as he blacked out.

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><p>Silence was the first thing he noticed when he came to. Complete and utter silence. He was dead, he was sure of it. Yet through his eyelids flickered light, a red, orange light that reminded him of fire. It was a struggle to open his eyes, his body initially unresponsive as it recovered from its ordeal. When he finally managed they flew open. He was in some type of cave, small but big enough for a few people to sit in comfortably.<p>

The light did indeed come from a fire that was blazing a few metres away from him and he realised now that the cave wasn't completely silent as the fire crackled. An involuntary groan escaped him as he got up into a sitting position, his whole body ached but his head and his arm were the worst. Glancing down at the bullet wound he was surprised to find his arm bound in a clean white rag, though the smoke had turned it slightly grey. The arm was still unresponsive however and he hissed in frustration.

"You're awake," the voice came from the cave mouth and for a moment only his figure could be seen.

The person walked further in carrying various sized wood and a sword, along with a gun strapped on his waist. His eyes widened when he finally saw the person in the light. It took a lot to surprise him but he was surprised now as he gazed at the person who had obviously saved him.

"I didn't have the right type of wood to make a splint for your arm before but I should be able to make one now," the other person explained calmly. "Also you shouldn't be sitting up, your head got a pretty good hit and it will heal better if you don't move and if you are lying down. Though I guess it will be easier to set your arm if you aren't sprawled on the ground."

Almost instinctively he raised his right hand to touch his head and felt the same material wrapped around it as was around his arm. His eyes never left the other as they walked over to him, laying the wood beside him as well as some more cloth, and very carefully moved his arm so it would mend in the right position. This caused his arm to shoot with sharp pain but he ignored it.

"Why are you doing this?" he whispered, his throat too sore to manage any other volume.

"Why wouldn't I help you?" Surprise gleamed from the other's eyes as he finished the splint and double checked it would hold.

"Because, we are enemies, your side was the side trying to kill me in the first place so why would you ruin that when you could easily have left me to drown in the river," he hissed. "You've betrayed us before, you chose your side the day that you did."

'_Were told lies like its truth and we suspect that it's you._'

The other didn't respond straight away but he didn't move away either. "That's ironic coming from you Tala."

"What?" rage flared in him suddenly.

Golden eyes met his own azure ones. "It's your fault he's gone. You're the one who left him there a year ago to be found by them."

"I did no such thing; he went away of his own accord. You don't know what happened you'd left by then."

"I was watching you; I know you suggested it to him, to get away from the stress of having a good friend betray him. If he'd stayed with you and the others perhaps he wouldn't be where he is now, maybe he would be happy and none of this shit would be going down."

"Don't talk to me about betraying my friends traitor," Tala snapped.

"Fine," came the unexpected reply. "You'll realise how much of this is your fault one day until then rest and recover. You have a long journey ahead of you if you are to make it out of these woods alive and back to your safe house, wherever that may be."

Tala blinked as the other person stood up and walked to the other side of the cave. They had been incredibly close as they had argued thought neither had noticed the distance between them disappear. Eyes narrowing, he glared at the other with distrust and hatred. He wanted to escape, to run as far away as he could but his body wasn't up to it and part of what the other had said was true, he needed his strength if he wanted to make it home. He still didn't understand why he was being helped but he emptied his mind and let sleep take him.

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><p>"It's been over five days now do you think they caught him?"<p>

"I think if they didn't it was a near thing. He should have been back days ago. I told the little fucker not to be seen."

"We don't know what has happened yet."

"He gets one more day until we leave this place with or without him."

Max opened his eyes as the voices moved away from him, into another part of the warehouse that was currently their safety house. Today he was the last to wake and if it hadn't been for the two that walked through loudly he would most likely still be asleep. Yawning he grabbed his cleanest clothes, which weren't really clean at all, and headed for the bathroom, why a warehouse had a fully equipped bathroom he did not know. At least it was his day for a shower and the water helped his stressed shoulders relax.

Every part of him felt filthy even after he scrubbed for over ten minutes. They only had a small bit of water each day so only a few of them could have a shower on any day and ten minutes was the very limit. With a defeated sigh he turned the water off and got out to dry himself on a surprisingly clean towel when compared to everything else. In the distance he could hear gunshots and assumed it was his friends practicing and perfecting their shot. He hated learning to use guns and the other weapons they had to practice with. It felt wrong to use any kind of weapon against another human, whether in self defence or not. '_So you strap 'em with the a-k.' _Bryan's words rang in his head, the Russian's response to aggression and violence was more of it right back.

As he left the bathroom in his semi clean plain black top and dark blue jeans he noticed a crowd below his platform. His gaze rested on a flash of red in the middle and he sighed in relief. To get there he had to travel down many corridors and flights of stairs but finally he made it.

"Now we can start," growled the figure in the middle, meeting Max's sapphire eyes and nodding slightly in greeting.

"Where's Kai?" Bryan snapped in obvious annoyance about having to wait.

Everyone went quiet and all eyes were on the red head. "He won't be coming back," he answered back.

"What? That was your mission to bring him back. Are you saying you're not good enough to get him away from them?" Tyson snarled angrily.

Tala's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You can look at me and say I didn't fucking try and save my friend. I tried everything I could possibly think of; even taking risks I knew I shouldn't have. He's gone and there's nothing anyone can do about it."

Max looked at his friend and flinched slightly. Both his head and arm were bandaged tightly and said arm was in a sling, his clothes were ripped and torn and appeared rippled as if they'd been soaked in water.

"You've failed us, we should have sent someone else," the Falcon said before adding. "Then Kai may not have died."

"Fucking hell Bryan. No one would have been able to do anything, it was too late," Tala's eyes darkened and then his eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, I-"

"Excuses. You were the last to see Kai before he left, how do we know you didn't hand him over to them and then go and kill him when you knew we were looking for him?" Tyson growled, rage shining from his brown eyes.

"Yes that's exactly how I ended up running for my life from people who wanted to kill me, the same people who held Kai. I mean why wouldn't I kill him and then set them on me, plan for them to shoot me and then almost drown in a river," the sarcasm barely hid Tala's own rage at the accusation.

The two of them were facing each other; both of them were tense as if just waiting for the other to react first. "You barely feel pain, barely feel any emotion, you could easily have done all of that just so you can pretend you're on our side," snorted Tyson.

'_It's mother fucking mayday._ Just stop it Tyson, he isn't like the others.' Max watched with dismay as the two continued to glare each other down, they had never gotten along but it had never been this bad before.

"You're right I could have but I wouldn't, there's the difference," the calm response made Tyson hesitate and in that small amount of time Tala had turned away and walked out the door into the forest just behind the large building.

The remaining people gathered in groups to talk about what they had just seen. From his spot Max could hear very different opinions on whether Tala had anything to do with Kai's death or not. He refused to join any of the groups and instead stared out at the trees.

"He needs some support," said Spencer as he stopped beside the younger man, before walking in the direction the Wolf had disappeared.

Without even thinking of any consequences of going after Tala, Max followed Spencer not aware of the eyes that followed the pair out. It took them a while to track down the red head but after 30 minutes of searching they found him by a small pile of stones in the middle of the trees.

"Tala?" the older blonde said gently.

Azure eyes flicked to them before gazing up at the clouds. No emotion was on his face, it was blank and indifferent like it normally was but Max knew that didn't mean Tala didn't have them it just meant he refused to show or acknowledge them. "Come to blame me too?" those five words contained so much bitterness that for a moment neither of the others could even think of a reply.

"Of course not," Max whispered, his face shone with concern for his friend.

"You need to leave," Spencer almost spoke at the same moment.

For a split second Tala looked shocked but it vanished. "Wait you don't think he did it?" Max asked the older man in surprise.

"Of course not, but that doesn't mean the others think he didn't. If Bryan takes Tyson's side then it will get ugly, and I think he will."

"_They swear I'm fucking crazy_," Tala muttered half to himself. "I think Bryan would be glad to see the back of me, after all I'm the only one who has ever challenged him for leadership and he thinks all my ideas are fucking idiotic and will get us killed. He probably thinks that was my real idea the entire time."

"Did you see Kai?" Spencer suddenly asked.

The other Russian nodded, "yes I did but as I said before I was too late to save him."

"What about Ray?" Max couldn't help but ask, Spencer looked eager for Tala's response as well.

Ray had left them long ago, mostly due to the fact that he'd 'betrayed' them but the three of them had never believed it. Though they only spoke about it among themselves, they think Ray had been framed or wrongly accused of something he had didn't do. For not the first time Max wondered if it had been Bryan's doing, that time was like this one except everyone had been against the Neko-jin.

"Yes I saw him too," Tala responded after a few moments.

"How was he?"

"He was... he seemed fine to me," he stared off into the distance as if in a memory.

The noise that could very vaguely be heard from the warehouse grew louder suddenly and it mostly sounded angry. _"'Aint nothing going to save me. _Not now they think I lend a hand with Kai."

Tala stood up and walked away from the other, two pairs of eyes watching him go sadly as he ran from an injustice. "The black bird isn't dead," he suddenly called to them over his shoulders, his eyes showed rare uncertainty. "Soon its wings will spread to wreck havoc on those beneath. Beware of the magic from within; rotten to its core it will make your downfall even faster."

Both froze to their places as the red head finished and then disappeared into the trees just at the moment the others burst into the small area. It was obvious they had heard the Russian's words as he fled; blank looks crossed their faces before they continued the chase.

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><p><strong>Ta-dah! I'll try and update this once a week or once every two weeks.<strong>


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